So next week will be my year mark! Scary huh? It doesn’t even feel like it’s been a year. I just want to turn back time, but keep my language ability! Haha! But yeah, it’s been a good year, but I’m going to work even harder this next year! I’ve learned, I’ve received the "training" I need, now it’s time to really put it into action and get a lot of work done.
Here in Cheonan, it’s been really hard getting referrals, but I feel that this next transfer or so, will finally yield some fruits. Our investigators are not really progressing, but we’re working hard with them and are going to put our focus on BAPTISM. We’re going to hit them with a bunch of commitments and follow up like a beast!

This week we found a new investigator. He reminds me of Michael, Spencer’s friend. Because he LOVES extreme sports and wants to climb Everest and go everywhere all over the world, etc. But he’s a STUD and is the coolest guy! He attends another church, but he’s open to our message, so that’s good. We’re going to extend the baptismal commitment to see if he’s even willing to progress. Anyway, then we met another guy that randomly came up to me while I was in a store, just standing. He came up to me and asked if we still did our english class, I answered of course and invited him to come. So he came and we’re going to meet with him this week!! He attended school in New York and he’s SO good at english. Anyway, I sent my package this week with a bunch of presents for everyone! It’ll be there hopefully at Christmas!

OH! we got transfer calls!! Guess who’s going to be District leader?? ME! Now is the time when I start to REALLY lose my hair…haha! Stress on full throttle! Haha! No, It’ll be great, I’m not that stressed about it. I’ll be staying with my companion, 박인오(Pak, In Oh) he’s so AWESOME! He’s hilarious! Anyway, gotta go! I love you all!!! Have a great week and keep smiling! Sorry if I didn’t email anyone back yet, I’ll try to email you back next week. Love you!!

Love,

Elder Smith
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화이팅!!!! 사랑해!

]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/dec-2-2013-ahhhhh/feed/0levictorsmithNov. 25 2013https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/nov-25-2013/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/nov-25-2013/#respondMon, 25 Nov 2013 04:13:50 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/nov-25-2013/]]>Well hidey HO stranger!! It’s been another crazy week in Korea. I forgot to say last week that it snowed here! The weather has been really crazy, I think it might be a side effect of the huge tsunami in the Phillipines? Anyway, last week we tried giving our investigator Kim Ir Hwan a baptismal commitment for his kids, but he denied because he originally denied his OWN baptismal INTERVIEW. When he was asked the question about Joseph Smith, he didn’t want to be baptized. So the interview was cancelled. We talked about why he stopped the interview, he said that he didn’t like the "name" thing, where people give credit to People instead of the Lord, etc. THen we explained that that wasn’t the case, GOD restored the church and we only ask that question to see if they believe in the restoration.
Anyway, other than that we found alot of potential investigators, so this coming week we will meet with them. YAY! Okay, sorry, I don’t have alot of time today. Gotta go. Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Smith

]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/nov-25-2013/feed/0levictorsmithNov. 18 2013https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/nov-18-2013/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/nov-18-2013/#respondMon, 18 Nov 2013 04:45:56 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/nov-18-2013/]]>Hello everybody!!
This week was an interesting week. A little disappointing, but still rewarding and fun. This week we we’re able to meet with any of our investigators, but we were able to talk to our youth leaders about the musical stuff and work out a way to get a TON of referrals! We’re having a dessert party for the youth in December and then, we committed the kids to bring at least one of their friends to the party and they all said they would! YAY!!!!!!! The leaders said for us to make a list of their friends and always to remind them at every practice to bring their friends. So that’s pretty amazing.

This week we had Stake conference. It was a special broadcast for the whole of Korea and they talked a lot about Family and MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK!! yay! So, just like all of the missionaries have been feeling here recently, member missionary work will explode and get into gear soon. It’s already happening down south in Gwangju, but it’s still pretty here in the North. Anyway, we’re excited!

There’s a funny thing that happened this past week while we were going to a member’s house for dinner. We were about to cross a street so we were waiting at a stoplight. While we were waiting we saw this lady running across the crosswalk towards us, with a purse in her hands, flailing her arms like a crazy person. She finally got across the street and started staring at us(of course, it’s always the missionaries…haha)then she started dancing and singing this awesome old korean song and acted absolutely crazy!! But when she was done, she started talking to us and said that just because of stress she just had to let it all out. It was hilarious. I’ll see if I can steal the video from the other elder taht was with us.Okay, gotta go. Love you all!!!

So, to make up for last week,(since I didn’t write last week, sorry…) I’ll talk briefly about what we did for the exciting,frightening week of Halloween!!
So here in Cheonan, we are blessed with a big ward of 130 people or so. So that means that we have a lot of youth and single adults. We decided then to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and put on a Ultimate, Scary, unmeasurably fun Halloween Party! We put alot of our attention, and used all 10 missionaries’ brains to make the best party we could.
So, we decided to make a "Spook alley". We used the ultra-scary upstairs hallway of our church and decorated it using decorations we got from a member and used one fo the rooms as a "scaring room" This is where the persom has to walk through and get scared by the people hiding or dressed in costumes. We had a flickering TV with Super scary drone music playing and the sister missionaries sitting watching the TV with their hair covering their faces, etc. It went really well, and it was hilarious to see the kids get freaked out! We have an Elder in our district, he’s really big and can scream really high and loud. So he hid right outside the exit door and freaked the people out as they came out! It was awesome.
Anyway, we also had them do the feel-the-scary-things-in-the-dark thing. I can’t remember what it’s called…haha! But anway, it was really fun. Then downstairs, we had a dance party and other games like bobbing for apples and "Draw the Face on the Jack-O-lantern" But, yeah, it was a true success. Our members loved it, and were really suprised, so they want us to put on a Christmas party.

Oh, that reminds me of what’s going on right now in Cheonan ward….the youth leaders and youth have decided to put on a musical!! They ahve decided to do "Les Miserables"! And so they just had auditions and have started practicing already. They’re going to perform it at Christmas time. But there’s something else, they have asked me and my companion to help them. They want me to teach them the songs and my companion to do the accompaniment! It’s such a coincidence, right before my mission, I did just the same thing with the same age of kids…anyway, yesterday was the first practice. It was hilarious!!! Because, they all can’t speak english and they all have to sing the songs in English! So what my companion and I decided to do was, learn the melody first, then write everything down in what’s called, "Konglish" or rather, Korean-English. So what that is, is english words pronounced through the Korean Alphabet. Anywya, if you know anything about Les Mis, you probably know the first song, "At the end of the Day"….they have to sing that….in English….So when we first practiced, they learned the melody really well, then when they got to the english, they just read off the Konglish!! HAHAHA!! It sounded SO Korean, but they did reallly good! it was just funny to hear them sing it. It reminded me of "A Christmas story" where the Asian guys sing the carol! HAHAHA! But our plan for this musical, is to turn it into a referral MACHINE! We’ll see what comes of it.

Anyway, our investigator Kim Ir Hwan is doing okay, we’re going to try visit him with a member from another ward who’s a professor and scriptorian. Hopefully he will understand then. We’re thinking about teaching him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and why we don’t really have the ability to interpret the scriptures without revelation from God. Stuff like that. OH! Something cool is going to happen here in the Korea, Daejeon mission in December! NEW YORK TIMES is coming to our mission to stay a day with one of the sister missionary companionships and will write an article about us missionaries and sister missionaries. Back in the 80’s they did the same thing with missionaries down in Africa. Anyway, we have no idea why the church picked our mission, we’re not even a high baptizing mission, if anything, we’re one of the lowest. But we’re all excited, and preparing like crazy. So maybe, in december or January, if you check New york times website, or something, you’ll see the article!
Cool huh?
Anyway, gotta go. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Smith
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]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/nov-11-2013/feed/0levictorsmithOct. 28 2013https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/oct-28-2013/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/oct-28-2013/#respondMon, 28 Oct 2013 06:01:44 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/oct-28-2013/]]>AH! it’s already the end of OCTOBER!! Somebody stop time please! It’s starting to go too fast!!!! Seriously, I looked just last night(when the transfer ended) at the planners i had, I already have 7 plus one from the MTC…I’m so old and it doesn’t even feel like I’m that old! Ah! But its totally okay, because I’ve still got more than a year! WHOO!
Anyway, this week wasn’t the crazy amazing week I was hoping would happen, but it was still pretty cool. While we were going to a dinner appointment at one of our members house, we met a couple elementary/middle school kids right outside the apartment complex and got talking to them about our english program. They were funny, when we said I was from Idaho, they started calling me 감자 아저씨 or "Potato Man" it was hilarious! But anyway, we set up an appointment with them this week and met with them. When we met we invited them to church, and made all the plans to meet them at the bus stop on sunday and everything, but on Sat. one of the kids said his Mom said he couldn’t talk to us anymore and the other kid never texted us back. Darn. But it’s okay, cause two of our other investigators came to church!! yay! They are the kids of our "golden investigator". We’re going to meet with them tonight and set a baptism date with them. yay!!!! So that’ll be cool.

Also a crazy thing happened today, nothing too special, well, I don’t know. Anyway, while we were heading out today to do email and everything else, we were walking out of our apartment complex when a lady passed by us. She kept looking at me funnily and staring at me. I looked at her and bowed and said hello. When I saw her, I recognized her but I didn’t know where I saw her before. Then she said, "Oh, so you came here huh?" Then kept on walking. I said something, I can’t remember, but then i just said, "have a good day!" But I walked away trying to figure out where I saw her before. After about 5min, I finally figured it out. She was the mom of one of our investigators in Jeongeup!!! Almost 7months ago! i only met her once!! But I remembered who she was, and she lives(uncoincidently) in our apartment complex!! It’s crazy! But I don’t know which aprtment she lives in exactly. I’ll figure it out, or the Lord will show me, but I’ll find her! Anyway, that’ll be it for the week. I gotta go. Bye, love you!!

Love,

Elder Smith

]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/oct-28-2013/feed/0levictorsmith2013.10.20https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/2013-10-20/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/2013-10-20/#respondMon, 21 Oct 2013 03:35:32 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/?p=143]]>]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/2013-10-20/feed/0levictorsmithOct. 21 2013https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/oct-21-2013/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/oct-21-2013/#respondMon, 21 Oct 2013 03:12:46 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/oct-21-2013/]]>Hidy HO!
How’s everyone? here in Korea, it’s starting to get colder and colder. At night I have to wear a big blanket now, and we’re also wearing suits. So that’s fun.
Last week, we went to a cool historic site nearby our city called 현충사 (Hyun choong sa) which is just a buddhist shrine thing and also a memorial site for a famous general in the 1400s. His original house is still there. So it was SO cool. I’ll try to send maybe a picture or two. Anyway, this week we met again with our investigator, Kim Ir Hwan. We talked about a BUNCH of stuff. We invited him to repent and to keep praying. He siad he’s been having a hard time with something, we’re assuming it’s his smoking problem and then he said that he didn’t really want to be baptized just cause he was baptized in a different church and was having too hard of a time with this thing he’s struggling with. AH! NO! That’s what baptism is for, so you can be clean! So we’ll talk to him more about it and hopefully set a date with him next time. Like I said last time, his kids always come out to church, but he never does just cuase he’s busy(at least that’s what he says…). Anyway, I know he’ll get baptized, just getting him there is the hardest journey, so it might take some time.

Today is transfer day! But our calls haven’t come in yet, so I have no Idea if I’ll be transferring or not. We’ll see…
This next week should be a really aweesome week. A couple weeks ago, we met a guy Kim Young Rae, He’s a college student that was really interested in teh church. But just cuase of tests, he hasn’t been able to meet. So this week we are going to meet him and he said taht he would come out to church!!! Yay!!!! Then, as we were doing a proselyting activity 2 weeks ago, a guy came up behind one of the other elders and gave him a huge hug. He was apparently a previous investigator just recently(right before I got to Cheonan) and wasn’t able to meet becuase of tests. He said he wanted to meet again adn said to call him this week! yay!! New investigator!! So, this week should be a really good week. I can’t wait to tell you about it next week! Okay, I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/oct-21-2013/feed/0levictorsmithmore pics!https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/more-pics/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/more-pics/#respondMon, 14 Oct 2013 03:11:59 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/?p=138]]>]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/more-pics/feed/0levictorsmithPics!https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/pics/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/pics/#respondMon, 14 Oct 2013 03:10:15 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/?p=134]]>Sorry I took forever…
]]>https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/pics/feed/0levictorsmithOct. 14 2013https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/oct-14-2013/
https://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/oct-14-2013/#respondMon, 14 Oct 2013 03:07:07 +0000http://elderlevansmith.wordpress.com/?p=130]]>Hello!
Sorry I didn’t send a big letter last week. We were pretty busy and I had a lot of letters to send, so I didn’t have time to write my big letter.

Anyway, for a summary of the week I missed: we went to a big parade here in Cheonan. It was an international dance festival where a bunch of groups from lots of countries do their traditional dances and there’s also a lot of modern dancing as well. There were SO many people there! It was crazy! Also a funny thing happened. As we were heading home for the night, there was a traditional Korean dance group in their traditional outfits and passing handing out little candies. Then, out of nowhere, a fat, chubby, short lady in her Korean clothing(한복 as it’s called in Korean), came running straight toward us foreigners and as she was running, she pulled out a kettle of something and a little wooden ladle used for drinking and poured into it some white liquid. The face she made was hilarious. She was so excited to give us foreigners a taste of what she’s got and when she finally poured out the liquid, she basically put it up to my mouth. In a split second thought, I realized what was being shoved into my face. It was the most drunk liquid in all of Korea. Makoli(머걸리) or rather, rice alcohol. Seriously, this is probably the most drunk liquid in Korea. Millions of bottles are drunken every week. Anyway, I had to shove the lady’s hand away from my face and tell her that we don’t drink. Then as she subsided and looked puzzled, she looked over at the other american elder and started to give it to him! He didn’t know what it was and since he didn’t hear what I said, he just went along and was about to try the drink. Haha! But I had to tell the lady "No" and she finally went away. It was hilarious! I’ll always remember the image of this fat happy lady running up to us pouring makoli! haha!
Anyway, right now, our investigators are at a slump, meeting with us, keeping commitments, etc. But we’re doing okay. We’re focusing on finding new investigators and working with the members more. Everyone in Korea is SO busy, like they don’t get home until 8 or 9 at night. So it’s hard meeting with people, but we find times and our investigators are really nice and cool. We’re just trying to fuel their gospel interest. One investigator that we met last week is 김일환(Kim, Ir Hwan) He is a golden investigator, or used to be. He read the BoM 2 times through within like a month or something like that. I came here just as he was starting to go downhill. He’s been having a hard time with smoking and likes to read out of the Bible alot. He LOVES the gospel and Jesus Christ, but since he’s busy and pressured alot from his friend who’s a member, he doesn’t come to church. So we’re working on that with him. He sends his kids to church, so that’s good. But anywya, we met with him this past week and talked about the Book of Mormon with him and what he thinks of it. I asked him what the Book of Mormon means to him. His answer, although good, didn’t satisfy my expectations. He focuses SO much on the doctrines of the Bible, that he misses the simple doctrines and principles laid out in the Book of Mormon. It puzzles me that he read the BoM 2 times and doesn’t have a strong testimony of it yet…He says he likes it and that it’s a good book. But that really wasn’t the answer I was hoping I would get from him. These past couple weeks, actually for basically the whole transfer, I’ve given him time to think about everything and I haven’t visited him till the other day. I was hoping that giving him time would help him to progress faster in the end and want to learn more from us, but it seems that it didn’t do much. Darn. But we’re going to work with his kids to get them baptized and really active with the Primary and Young mens and everything. There’s a girl and a boy, but they don’t really like to talk to us, they’re really shy and the boy likes to play on his phone all the time. I’ll tell you more about them and how they’re doing next week.

So last week on P-day, I went to my first Buddhist Temple! It was SO cool! As we were going up the mountain and stairs to get up to it, we heard the monks doing their ceremony. It was the perfect time to go. They were doing their bows and had the knocking of a wood thing and they were doing some chants and stuff. Its hard to explain. Anyway, I took a lot of pictures and i’ll send one today with the email. But yeah, it was huge! They also had a HUGE bronse buddha. Okay, I gotta go. I love you all! I’ll try to send you all responses to your letters, it’s just that I don’t have a lot of time to write. Okie day! I love you all!